Merthyr Express column

22 Jan 09
Talent Contest
Budding singers, dancers, actors and other performing artists are now enroling to the W Factor; a talent contest for ages 5 – 11, with prizes ranging from, pizzas, cinema tickets, days out and cash. Performances could be either as individuals or as a group of up to five, Preliminary rounds run on 26th and 27th January, with the final round on 30th January, at 6 – 8pm in the Welsh Centre / Y Ganolfan Gymraeg, Pontmorlais (£2 entrance fee). For further information, please contact the registration hotline on 01685 722176

Open Mike Nights
The next three Open Mike Literature Nights, for poetry and short story extracts will be on 19th February, 19th March and 16th April. The first evening welcomes a poet, born and brought up in rural England, who moved to Wales in 1982; Hilary Llewellyn-Williams. Hilary was winner of Cardiff Literature Festival Competition 1987; winner of the Arts Council of Wales Young Writers Prize 1988 and joint 3rd Prize Arvon/Observer Poetry Competition 1994. A freelance tutor of creative writing for adults and schools, Hilary teaches on the Creative Writing MA programme at Cardiff University. Her work appears regularly in various magazines, and has featured in many anthologies, including The Bright Field (Carcanet), Twentieth–Century Anglo–Welsh Poetry, Love from Wales, Drawing Down the Moon, Burning the Bracken (Seren), Exchanges (Honno), The Third Day (Gomer) and others. She has three collections of poetry published by Seren, and in 1999 was awarded an Arts Council bursary to complete a new poetic translation of the I Ching. Open Mike Literature Nights are all free entry. For further information, please contact 01685 725382 or arts@merthyr.gov.uk.

Merthyr Artists
Merthyr Tydfil College’s Head of Visual Arts, Martyn Jones is currently exhibiting at the Rhondda Heritage Centre, along with John Uzzell Edwards, who also worked and lived in Merthyr for a number of years and is currently exhibiting in Cyfarthfa Castle. Both are part of the artist group; Ysbryd/Spirit Painting Wales, who present a new, exciting and diverse exhibition ‘Ffres’. Also on show will be work by other prominent Welsh artists, including former National Esteddfod Gold Medel winner, Iwan Bala and Artes Mundi shortlister Sue Williams, together with Sarah Bradford, Glyn Jones, John Selway and Peter Spriggs. The exhibition originated by Newport Museum & Art Gallery comprises of works from the artists, exhibiting as ‘Ysbryd’ (‘spirit’ in English). The wide range of work on show will aim to challenge the viewer to respond to a new ‘spirit’ in Welsh painting, that is emerging in the 21st century, re-assessing the emotional immediacy of the painted image. This new ‘spirit’ will be exemplified in the work of these painters. Michael Tooby,